Are you a Social Media Story Teller?

Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat stories could add more value than you think to your small business marketing efforts. Read on to discover how you can leverage stories to build a more intimate brand narrative.  

It seems every major social media platform has jumped on the ‘stories’ bandwagon over the last few years. Some, such as Instagram have instantly triumphed, attracting over 300 million daily active users, while others have gone through various reincarnations to drive engagement.   

If you’re yet to experience social media stories, the function at its most basic level allows users to group photos and videos in chronological order, creating a story. Friends and followers can then view these streams; however, they are only available for 24 hours before they expire. As a business owner, you may wonder where the value lies in something that will disappear after 24 hours? Well, when used strategically, stories can help you to create an immersive and personal brand experience.   

 What are the benefits of stories, over social media posts?  

Newsfeeds are great at organizing important brand updates and creating a ‘go-to’ point of contact. Unfortunately, continually evolving algorithms, most recently within Facebook is altering how this content is being consumed, by de-prioritizing brand content on newsfeeds in favor of more ‘meaningful’ posts. These algorithms are making it increasingly difficult to create a consistent brand narrative. This is where social media stories come in to play. Social media stories allow small businesses to keep their engagement with followers unbroken, and because they are separate from main timelines, and followers can dip in and out, you can continually share a large volume of content without clogging up your followers feeds.  

What content should I be Sharing in my Social Media Stories?  

The ephemeral nature of content shared through social media stories provides scope to show the bones of your business. Content can be fun, and of the moment, you don’t need to get caught up in taking the perfect professional photo or obsess over editing. Audiences tuning in to social media stories expect immediate content which grants them a behind the scenes pass to your brand. Think about your stories as a casual way of inviting your audience to be part of your conversations in real-time,   

Where can I post my Stories?   

Instagram  

Despite Snapchat being the trailblazer of stories, it seems Instagram has taken its position as its popular older sister. Attracting a more mature audience, and being a firm favorite among businesses, Instagram’s Story function is being monopolized by global brands to encourage brand engagement and push out sponsored content. As a small business you can get in on the action too, Instagram stories offers options to add additional functions to your story content, such as polls, and date stamps to mark significant events. Creating a poll is especially relevant, as it means you can collect live data from your audience, which is fantastic for driving engagement and learning about their likes and dislikes.   

Facebook  

Facebook stories work in much the same way as Instagram stories; allowing you to add stickers and filters to your content, and post directly from your brand page. Unlike Instagram however, Facebook makes your stories visible outside the app so that people accessing the platform through a desktop device can view your content too.   

One of the most exciting developments for businesses is Facebook’s launch of its collaborative stories function, which allows attendees of events organized on Facebook to share moments directly to the event page or group as they happen. For businesses the potential of this function is huge. It’s a fantastic way to create an engaged community centered around a brand event, such as a product launch or company celebration. It also showcases the best moments for those unable to attend, which simultaneously keeps them involved and sparks just enough FOMO for them not to miss out on your next event.   

What’s next for stories?   

With LinkedIn and Twitter yet to experiment with stories, it looks like businesses will have to rely on Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram to get their fix. Considering Facebook’s recent focus on collaboration, and the increase in brands building a narrative through social media stories, it makes sense that 2020 will see a more significant push towards increasing the interactive functions available within story technology, to continue to close the gap between users and their audiences.  

About my agency: Enrise Spark LLP

EnriseSpark LLP is a full administration Interactive media organization (Social Media, Digital Marketing, Branding), a group of makers, practitioners, coordinators and by and large capable spirits. We are sufficiently fortunate to make something excellent pretty much every other day, assemble brands and plan for gifted individuals from all around the globe.

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